


Caring for each other

by mikiyu



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), magical healing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:34:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29361102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikiyu/pseuds/mikiyu
Summary: Caspar planned to spend the whole evening training, that is until Linhardt comes and stops him.
Relationships: Caspar von Bergliez & Linhardt von Hevring, Caspar von Bergliez/Linhardt von Hevring
Comments: 5
Kudos: 22





	Caring for each other

It was a sunny spring afternoon at Garreg Mach. A gentle breeze ran through the charming gardens and the sun rays seeped through every window, lighting up even the darkest corner in the whole monastery. After a whole week of cloudy skies and incessant rain, the good weather managed to bring up everyone’s spirits, and for Caspar was no different since that only meant one thing: it was the perfect time for training.

He had eaten a quick and light lunch at the dining hall to run towards the training grounds right after, where he spent the whole time until now, with the sun almost setting, casting shadows in every path and tainting the entire place in a warm orange hue.

But Caspar wasn’t going to stop yet. Along the afternoon he had practiced with Petra, who had taught him Brigid’s fighting style; and though her light and manageable sword was very different from the hard and heavy axe Caspar normally used, that hadn’t stopped him from learning some new moves and spending a very enjoyable time sparring with her. He actually felt a bit dumb that he hadn’t asked her to practice together sooner, but Caspar had wanted to know there were no resentments because of their fathers; and even when she had told him everything was okay between them, Caspar still had some trouble approaching her at first. However, he was glad they had been able to train together and that they were on good terms. Caspar really couldn’t wait for the next time they could spar together.

The bells from the cathedral sounded around the entire monastery, making Caspar realize how late it was. He blinked and scanned the room, surprised that he hadn’t noticed he was the last one remaining there; even Felix had already left, and that was much to say. Caspar only shrugged and focused on his new opponent in front of him, grabbing his axe tighter with both his hands. He was used to train for hours on end, so being alone in the training grounds was nothing new to him. He took a deep breath and with a loud scream he launched towards the training dummy.

He was still trying Brigid’s fighting style, moving the arms and legs the way Petra had showed him before so as to finally master the movement. His efforts seemed worth it when the next second the dummy’s head was finely cut from its body, flew into the air and then landed on the floor with a soft thud.

“Yes, I did it!” Caspar exclaimed to no one but himself, lifting the arm with which he was grabbing the axe into the air in a victory move and grinning wide with the familiar contentment that invaded him whenever he mastered a new move.

“Well done,” someone said behind him. It startled him a bit, but Caspar didn’t need to turn around to know the owner of the voice. His smile only widened and the excitement bubbled inside him with double force.

“Lin! Did you see it?” he said, turning around to face his best friend. “I was awesome, wasn’t I?”

Linhardt didn’t seem very impressed, though to be fair he hardly ever was. However, that had never stopped Caspar to show off his moves to him, and deep down he knew Linhardt liked watching them. Otherwise, he wouldn’t accept to it and would have gone to his bedroom to take a nap or would have even fallen asleep right there in the place.

Linhardt only hummed, but that was enough for Caspar. He was so happy that he had started bouncing on his feet like a little child without knowing it.

“Come on Caspar, it’s getting late. You should stop now.”

“Huh? But I’m not tired yet. I’m not leaving until I learn all the moves Petra has showed me!”

Linhardt shook his head, eyes closed and a small sigh escaping his lips.

“Let me rephrase it. You _are_ stopping now.”

Caspar opened his mouth to further protest but it seemed Linhardt had had enough; he had little patience when he was tired, and with the sun just minutes away from completely setting behind the hills there was no doubt sleep would take his friend fairly soon. Before he could say anything, Linhardt approached him with large steps, took his free hand in his and dragged him out of the training grounds.

“O-oi! Lin!”

Linhardt didn’t slow his pace a bit, so Caspar finally resigned and barely had time to toss his axe aside in one corner before they completely exited the place.

Once outside, however, Linhardt kept walking forward with their hands still locked together. It surprised Caspar a bit but he wouldn’t complain. He took a glance at their joined hands and couldn’t help the tug at his lips that came at the thought of how perfectly they fit together. They had used to hold hands like this a lot when they were kids. Caspar didn’t know when exactly they had stopped doing it but he seriously thought they should start again with the habit because it flooded Caspar with happy memories and a very warm and nice feeling. Well, he figured that was a normal sensation whenever he was in Linhardt’s presence, but with the lingering touch of their hands it was increased by a tenfold.

They crossed the path connecting the training grounds with the first floor dormitories, went down the stairs and finally entered Linhardt’s room. Caspar was not surprised; after all, a lot of the time they spent together was in that room. What Caspar was surprised about was the determination with which Linhardt made him sit at the edge of his bed, him sitting right at his side and taking his other hand too, palm up and looking at it with a slight frown.

“I knew it,” he muttered under his breath, sounding both resigned and tired.

Caspar blinked. “You knew what?”

“You over-exercised yourself. Again,” Linhardt explained with an accusatory look in the eyes.

“What do you mean I--?!”

A pleasant tingling slowly extended through both his palms, making Caspar abruptly shut up. He looked at his hands and his eyes widened at the dim white light emanating from Linhardt’s hands and flowing into his owns. And suddenly, he recognized the feeling of Linhardt’s magic. It wasn’t the first time he felt it. He had sensed it what felt like countless times before during battles, a nice tingling that covered his whole body and filled him with renewed energies, healing his worst wounds and literally insufflating him with a burst of life that had definitely saved him more than once.

However, this felt oddly different. With neither the adrenaline running through his veins nor the stress of battle, Caspar’s senses solely focused on the feeling of Linhardt’s magic on his hands. He saw wide eyed how it slowly worked, turning his red damaged skin from relentlessly fighting with his axe that afternoon to its usual pale color. It seemed to even soften his palms a bit from the calluses that had appeared on them from the moment he took up his training.

Caspar found himself smiling once again, but not wide and excited or amused and cheeky, like he usually did. Instead, it was a slow and soft rising of lips, the type of smile he only made around certain people, being Linhardt and only Linhardt certain people.

He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the view, completely mesmerized by the tiny sparkles dancing around their hands. It was beautiful and the act itself also felt special. Intimate. Yeah, that was the word. Caspar could feel his cheeks warming a bit at the realization.

His skin healed completely, as if he hadn’t touched a weapon in months. It was still a bit calloused as usual, but definitely not red and rough and almost bleeding like it had been before. The light coming from Linhardt’s hands slowly died, leaving the two boys in the dark room, with only the light from the last sunbeams of the day seeping through the narrow windows.

“You’re amazing, Linhardt.”

His words sounded loud in the comfortable silence that had fallen upon them, even if they were definitely quiet in contrast to Caspar’s normal speaking volume.

He meant what he had said. Caspar had always known it, of course, but it was in times like this that he was reminded of how lucky he was for having Linhardt as his best friend. Because sure, he was lazy and sleepy at times -at _most_ times-, he hated training and could be sometimes too blunt while talking. But even so, he always helped Caspar with his studies whenever he asked him, made an effort to stay awake and take him out of the training grounds when it was too late -like it had just happened- and allowed Caspar to talk and talk nonstop about everything and anything, and he knew Linhardt wasn’t interested in some things of what he said but still he would always listen to him.

And for all that and much, much more, Caspar loved Linhardt.

“It’s not that impressive. This was a quite basic healing spell, actually one of the first ones I learned when I started studying faith magic.” Linhardt brought a hand to his mouth, repressing a yawn. “I never use it anymore since it’s not useful for battles where people tend to get severely injured, but I figured it would be enough for your poor hands. It was actually nice to cast it again after such a longtime,” he added the last sentence with a little smile, which only made Caspar’s own to grow bigger.

“It sure was impressive! But I wasn’t talking about that. Well… I guess that too, but I mean-- I wasn’t talking about _just_ that.”

“What do you mean?” Linhardt asked with a clearly confused expression.

“I mean you’re always amazing!”

Linhardt blinked once, twice, and then only snorted and slightly shook his head.

“Out of the two of us, I think you’re certainly the most suitable for that adjective.”

“What?” Caspar couldn’t help the word escaping his lips, because really, what was Linhardt saying? As the second son of a nobleman he would inherit no title, no lands, no fortune; he didn’t even have a crest, so all in all, Caspar was just a pretty normal, average boy; anything but amazing. Sure, he was working hard to build his own future -attending the Officer’s Academy and improving his fighting abilities was his first step in that life quest- and although he was slowly making progress, he still had a lot to learn before he could be described as someone truly ‘amazing’.

But Caspar wasn’t going to explain all that to Linhardt, since he already knew it and could easily guess what type of response he would get from his friend. Instead, he crossed his arms at his chest and replied.

“Just shut up and accept my compliment!”

This time, Linhardt only chuckled good-naturedly. “Alright, alright.” Another yawn made its way out of Linhardt’s mouth. “It’s time to sleep, now.” Just as the words left his lips, Linhardt laid down right in the same spot where he had been sitting at the end of the bed, next to Caspar.

It was only when Linhardt mentioned it that Caspar realized the faint light from before had finally faded and they were both sitting in an almost complete darkness now. Instinctively, Caspar got up from the bed and lit the candle resting on the desk across the room. The single, steady flame didn’t do much to illuminate the place, but Caspar guessed it was enough.

He turned around and saw Linhardt already half asleep in the bed. And as if Linhardt’s weariness was contagious, Caspar suddenly felt how tired and hungry he was, the effects of his hard training session finally working on him.

“Hey Lin, have you had dinner yet? If not we can go eat something together.”

He only got a sleepy and unintelligible murmur as an answer. But Caspar knew well his friend and immediately understood what he meant to say.

“Come on, don’t be lazy. You have to eat something, especially since you barely touched your food for lunch.”

Another sound came from Linhardt, this one seeming more like an annoyed groan than anything.

“Okay, okay, I get it. I’ll go to the dining hall and grab something for you, then. I’ll be right back; don’t fall asleep!” Caspar shouted over his shoulder as he opened the bedroom door and rushed outside. Just before leaving he heard Linhardt saying something, from what he only got the words ‘hurry up’ and ‘curfew’. Caspar internally thanked the reminder and ran towards the dining hall, which was luckily very close to Linhardt’s place.

Unfortunately, the kitchen was already closed and only a few students remained inside the dining hall. He recognized Raphael happily eating the last bits of a big plate of meat in one corner and Ferdinand enjoying a cup of tea on his own. With a mischievous smile, Caspar approached the latter and snatched a pair of Linhardt’s and his favorite sweet buns from Ferdinand’s tea delicacies, and although he did complain about Caspar’s manners when he ran away with the half given-half stolen food, for the tone of his voice he knew Ferdinand didn’t really mind it.

He quickly returned to Linhardt’s room only to find him already fast asleep, curled up on top of the covers just as he had left him, with hair falling over his eyes and his uniform still on. Caspar sighed; of course he had already fallen asleep. He took a bite of his sweet bun and left Linhardt’s on his bedside table. As much as he wanted to wake him up and make him eat some food –between sleep and research, it concerned Caspar how little his friend was eating these days-, Linhardt seemed so tired and was sleeping so peacefully that Caspar couldn’t bring himself to disturb him.

Instead, he took a blanket from the closet and threw it over Linhardt’s figure, making sure to tuck it well at his shoulders so that he wouldn’t be cold. He stared at Linhardt for a bit longer while eating the last bite of his sweet bun. Caspar had seen him sleeping more times than he could remember and still, he never got bored with the sight. He reached his hand a bit closer and gently pulled some strands of hair out of Linhardt’s face, tucking them behind his ear.

“Goodnight, Linhardt,” Caspar muttered.

He stood up and was about to leave when a hand wrapping around his wrist stopped him from stepping any further.

“Lin?”

“It’s already curfew. You’re going to get into trouble if you get caught outside your room. Just stay here,” Linhardt explained in a low voice, with his eyes closed and his hand tightening the slightest bit around Caspar’s own.

Caspar was a bit surprised, not because of Linhardt’s offer to stay the night, but because of the poor excuse he had given him. The curfew bells still hadn’t sounded and though it wouldn’t be long till then, Caspar was sure he had enough time to get back to his own room on the second floor. It almost seemed as if Linhardt simply wanted him to stay the night with him.

But no matter the reason, Caspar wasn’t going to decline Linhardt’s invitation and waste the opportunity to spend more time together. With only a soft hum as confirmation, he blew out the candlelight and Linhardt made room for Caspar to join him in the bed. They didn’t have much space, but since none of them were especially bulky they fitted just right in the mattress. It reminded Caspar of the days when they were kids and he would sneak into Linhardt’s room to sleep together in his huge bed.

Linhardt snuggled a bit closer, lightly resting his head against Caspar’s chest as if it was the most natural thing to do, which Caspar not only didn’t mind but also kind of liked it.

“’Night, Caspar,” Linhardt murmured with a yawn, sounding very close to falling asleep again.

Caspar smiled, and without really thinking, threw his arm around Linhardt’s frame, also scooting a tiny bit closer. And he realized that it would have been a weird move to make with anyone else, but with Linhardt this closeness only felt natural and right. And for the way Linhardt relaxed in his embrace, Caspar wanted to believe he felt the same.

“Sweet dreams, Lin.”

And before he succumbed to slumber, Caspar could only think that no matter what the future had waiting for him, he’d be happy with anything as long as Linhardt was in it, remaining at his side. Because if they were together to care for each other, just like they had always done, like they did today; it felt like nothing could go wrong at all.

**Author's Note:**

> These two are so soft, I love them so much!  
> I've recently got into fe3h and this is my first fic for this fandom so feedback is very appreciated ^^  
> Thank you so much for reading!!


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